time and sorrow
by Mommy Silver
Summary: never was there a dragon born who knew time and sorrow... this one knew sorry, I was silly enough to delete the first story


For the love of a dragon

If I'd own the Gate of Death cycle… wow, I'd be rich! But I don't, so I am not rich…. Poor me! But I do own Winter Majesty

o.0.o

It was a bright sunny day. It would hardly ever rain on Kurinandistai. Sometimes it did, but the water was holy to the people due to the fact that the coralite didn't soak it in. The crystal trees soaked in the water, if they were only 6 to 7 foot tall the water could be harvested. If they were taller than they would use it for themselves. On these worlds were no creeks or clear brooks. The coralite produced a gas that was thinner than air; the isles floated in thin air. Some isles were light, others dense. Kurinandistai belonged to the midst realm of Arianus, World of Sky.

The sky was bright and for the first time in several days there were no warriors in the sky. No elfin princes on the run, or mages at war with kings and queens. No riots today, not anything. But this part of Kurinandistai was to far away from any towns. Deserted and almost on the edge of the isle, stood a small cabin. It was made out of wood. The small house was old but still standing. Grasses covered the roof of the small cabin.

Within the cabin it wasn't comfortable. There were no chairs or tables. There wasn't even a bed. Dark stained windows blocked the Solaris bright beams as if the Lords of Night covered Kurinandistai, like they did every twelve hours. Only a large skin - in the left corner on the right side - of a killed animal served as blanket. In the right corner on the left side - there was a small stove, which provided also warmth in snowy and icy days. Cold weather always tormented the isles of Arianus.

The small cabin provided shelter and warmth for a huntress.

No one knew her name. No one knew where she was from. All the villagers knew was that she was there, suddenly, like a dryad who left her tree. Some said she was a dryad. Some said she was a sorcerer. Others claimed that she was a witch or an elf. But no one truly knew.

o.0.o

'eheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!'

As she heard the sound, the wild boar ran away from the noise. Whatever it was, it went on and on and on. Sometimes it stopped, and then it was there again. The shrieking sound almost split her head in two. Curious, she stopped her hunt and decided that she needed to know the source of the shrieking sound.

'eheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!'

With fast strong legs she jumped over the cripple wood. Her ears had found the direction of the sound, her eyes followed her ears. The crystal trees shattered all around her due to the sound, but also the wind…

At least, she was there, there were the noise was as loud as she could hear. And it stopped! Was this a joke? Or a game? Was she part of a hunt? Or was this a trap?

A pair of golden eyes stared up to her, as she stood there. It tried to stand on it's feet, but fell to the ground again. Flat on it's butt. In stead, the human child gazed at the woman.

She had all the human features a human woman could have. Two arms, two legs and she walked upright. She was tall and lean and had a small waist. Small breasts and a long neck. Her shoulders were strong. Her face was heart shaped her eyes a bit like that of a dragon, wide and long. The woman wasn't muscular at all, but yet her appearance made a strong impression. Thick silver white locks fell down her back. In her hands she held a small dagger; normally it was hidden in her left boot. A white shirt covered her arms, leather pants her legs. Her boots, knee high, were also made out of leather. The leather tunic she wore had become soft as polishing cloth in the years.

Immediately after the human child had seen her, she started to scream again. Her high pitched shrieking voice was so loud, the crystal branches broke and it rained shards upon them.

The woman fled, when she heard people moving in. Right now, she didn't care what happened to the child… did she?

With strong hands she climbed in a crystal tree and waited for the people to come. Maybe they would come and pick up the child?

'Damn!' the crying child faded away as the soldier approached. The sorceress didn't keep the lifelike image of the child. 'She found out.' The captain cried and more crystal branches ran down upon them. Several men run into the forest, but were hit by falling branches.

She could feel the branch shudder and shake underneath her feet. But it held her. The tree was strong, and powerful.

A beautiful sorceress entered the crystal field, 'she was here… I can feel her magic! Find her and kill her!'

The woman couldn't believe her ears. She hardly understood the human language, the elfin language even less and Geg or Dwarf? That was too hard for her. But this was a total insult. The rage boiled within her and wanted to break out. With patience, she held it back. If the sorceress would feel her powers now, she would charge and kill her.

The woman knew enough. It was time to leave this place.

o.0.o

_I am still older than you will ever become…sorceress. You may be strong, you may be powerful, but you will never surpass me. Nor will you surpass the Mysteriarchs of the highest realm. _She thought to her as she wondered back to her small cabin that night. _You are young and beautiful. You haven't seen what I have seen. You haven't got my years. Nor my life. You hold your own life within your hands, because you don't know any better. The lives of those around you are nothing to you. I've seen it. I've felt it. _

_Oh my love! I want to talk to you! I want to tell you how sorry I am. Sorry for my stupidity and my curiosity. I am sorry for you… You gave up your life for me! And I did nothing! _

_What did I do in the mean time… I should have rescued you. But I did nothing. In stead of that, I watched people; I studied them…In all this time… in all this time there was never one of us born who knew sorrow. _

_I have seen kingdoms rise and fall. I have seen armies come and go. I have seen battles, wars; I've seen the beginning of the war and the end of it. _

_Yes, I was even there when the world was split in four Worlds. I was still a youngster, a little one. But I have seen it. _

_I was there, when the Sartans were created by the waves of magic. I have seen them flourish in prosperity. _

_I was there, when the same wave of magic created the Patryns as their opponents. I have seen them flourish in prosperity as well. _

_I have seen lust, and love. I have witnessed hate and destruction among both people. Samah of the Sartans… was jealous of the Patryns… They were smarter, better, stronger. But Samah didn't want to learn. He wanted what they had. For the Sartans were doomed to extinct. The world had decided that they had become useless. _

_I have seen their fights, their wars… I lost many due to those wars. _

_I was there when the Patryns were slaughtered by the Sartans and their equally powerful magic. They were hunted like they were something lower than animals. As if they weren't allowed to live. As if they had no right to live. I have to admit, Patryns aren't a kind people. But I always wondered what it would be like, to be one of them. _

_I was there, when the Sartans disappeared from this world. Where would they've gone to? Where would they be? I was there when everybody forgot about everyone. _

_I was there, when they forgot about the other Worlds…_

_But I never forgot myself, when I was with you, my endless love. _

_I always wondered what it was like to be a human. Or what it was like to be an elf? Or what it was like to be a Geg or a dwarf. Sometimes I even wondered what it would be like to be a Sartan, or a fearless Patryn. They all walk on two legs, two feet. Upright as my lover's master would say. _

_I never ever intended this. It wasn't my intention that my desires would become true, like this. The dryad always wonders what it's like to be a human girl. The naiad and the hydriade all wish the same: to be human, just for one day. _

_But when they've become human and see their deepest wish come true, they will never live to see the next day. They want more, and more and more, and live life to the max… _

_I don't want to… not anymore. _

_I have payed the price for my curiosity. The ultimate price: my love. _

_My love had a name… Once. A long time ago. _

_How long did I wander through this world? How long, since my Armageddon? _

_He is mortal, my master's human. And claim's to have captured my love himself. That is a lie. For he has no power at all to capture my love. One of his ancestors did. And he passed on from son to son, like a watre changing from owners on a market day. _

_My fascination for humans ended the day he found me. _

Before she knew it, she was back at the cabin.

o.0.o

'There you are…' the soft voice that of the sorceress, 'You are mine now…' the woman saw the sorceress, who begun to sing and dance like a Sartan. Did she even know what she was doing? But the woman danced on and on. Her voice was strong and soft, warm like fire. She fell asleep, slowly but certainly. All she wanted to do was to give up and fall down… asleep. It woke something else as well… Old, forgotten magic, waiting to burst out.

The shrieking sound of a dragon that flew over woke the magic up. And not only her body, but also her instincts! The victim started to cry and shout, her cries shattered the entire forest of crystal trees. Her clothes vanished, her body became silver and she developed a tail. Her body grew taller and thicker as she slowly but fast transformed into a quicksilver dragon.

The sorceress stopped her magic, it was no use now… She had lost this battle. 'I knew it!!!' she cried in panic, 'I knew it!!! You are the dragon!' The sorceress had gone mad within seconds, with wide eyes and a high pitched voice she kept screaming and signing and dancing. The magic of the Sartans didn't work anymore. Within seconds her opponent had become a gorgeous quicksilver dragon of enormous proportions.

Threatening she gazed down upon the sorceress. As quicksilver dragon she had the ability to use magic of her own. What to do… what to do? She could kill the sorceress, or hurt her so badly that she would die anyway. Or eat her? Her tummy rumbled and she hadn't had dinner for quite a long time. Her scaled skin glistered in the darkness. The blue eyes shone down upon the woman. In a second, she remembered something. The dragon that fly by…

Unlike other quicksilver dragons, she had wings. She wasn't a serpent like creature; she was the daughter of a normal dragon and a quicksilver dragon. Both species combined produced her. It was a sort of alliance between species.

'I know who you are!' the sorceress cried. Her name was unspeakable in normal language. In human language it meant Winter Majesty. Winter Majesty roared loud and full of anger and pain. 'You are Winter Majesty! The half blood Quicksilver Dragon!'

Than she smashed her giant claw into the sorceress body, and spoke 'For eons I have lived next to you two footers. I have seen kingdoms come and go, armies rise and fall. Time did not kill me! A human did! Be glad I will not kill all the humans!' she roared, lifted up her claw and threw the dying sorceress of the cliffs of Kurinandistai.

Her body would never be found as she fell bleeding into the Maelstrom, the dark clouds covered sight of the lower realm, just like the Lords of Night did in the higher realm. Winter Majesty always wondered if the woman would die from bleeding, or the Maelstrom or that she fell on one of the lower isles…

o.0.o

With clapping wings she lifted herself up from Kurinandistai and defied the gravitational pull of the nexus. She was strong, though the gravity decided to claim her. Concentrating on her Quicksilver blood she fell that gravity no longer mattered. Just like the isles, she floated around and finally she lifted up her gigantic head and flew towards the isles of Griphith Archipelago; one of these isles would make a fine stop for her, to hunt and to rest. These isles were deserted.

But she never reached them. As she climbed higher and higher in the sky of the midst realm, her love came back. The love for a quicksilver dragon, captured due to her curiosity.

Time had taken everything away from her, and gave her sorrow. The transformation to a human being was too much for her. She grieved in this form for centuries. But now she had found courage and the will to strike back and free her love!

o.0.o

In the high realm, at one of the Lords of Night, a Quicksilver dragon raised its head. He felt her approach; he felt her heartbeat within his veins. The quicksilver dragon strode forward, to the proud woman in front of him. She was his next prey, now that his master was gone. She! The woman who lived with the master! Her master turned the dragon's love into a human woman. And only simple magic of the now could break the spell.

Spell?!

The spell over him was strong. But it wasn't strong enough. He felt her… She felt his presence up there, high in the world of Arianus. He roared and smacked its tail into the barriers of the fortress. Soothing were the voices around him, and another spell covered him… Captured him within his mind… The dancing clumsy man…

_Sartan!!!!_ His mind screamed, _Sartan!!!!_

But his body didn't react. It was asleep, within its mind. He dreamed away of lush green fields and warm skies and hundreds of preys to hunt with his love.

Alfred saw the second dragon approach, but he had no more power to overcome her. He waited for her to land and to break his neck with her claws. In stead of that, she hovered a few hundred meters above him, 'Sartan…' she whispered, and landed in front of him, 'thank you for not transforming my endless love into a human being.'

He was flabbergasted, a dragon that could speak? But of course! 'you are Winter Majesty.' He said to her, 'OH! I'm so sorry!' Alfred begun to mutter and cry, 'I'm so sorry!'

Understanding she gazed at the ruins of what once was Castle Sinistrad, 'I waited for him… The spell is not strong anymore… go. I'll protect you from my love.' In the corner she saw the Patryn waiting to leave. The child he had in his hands felt dangerous… she wanted to break its little neck. The Geg on the other hand, lay in fear on the floor, hoping and praying to something he called Mennedjers that he wouldn't be eaten. 'Go.' She whispered and lay her gigantic head down at her lover's feet, 'go.'

As they left, she began to wonder again, with sorrow…

There was never ever a dragon born who knew the meaning of sorrow.

o.0.o

_I battled hard… so hard, that I never felt the spell. I never felt the trap of magic. Seventeen mages and sorceresses stood there, and covered me within their spell, their trap. As my love was captured, I was transformed into something I had begun to dislike, to hate. It betrayed me. To my despair. No longer did I have the shape of a dragon. No longer did I have my proud wings. No longer could I fly through the skies of Arianus. No longer could I long for the complete world… _

_I had hands… soft hands with small nails. When I touched my body, I felt two humps… my breasts. I had legs… bare legs. And bare feet. No longer did I have a scaled skin; no longer was I a wanted prey for the elves. No longer was I a proud curious dragon… _

_I had become human… _

_There I lay on the ground. Every time I tried to get up, I fell, because I couldn't walk on two legs. I couldn't fly anymore. I lost it all. Everything! My love! I lost you!! My precious love! _

_Human! Human! Human! I disliked them, I hated them I was disgusted by their sight! But then I found out, that humans could die… just like when I was a dragon… It took a couple of years to teach me how to walk, to read and write. But what are years to a dragon lady? _

_I made friends and found out that most didn't like the Mysteriarchs who captured my love. I made enemies who hated my guts, but I always run away… _

_And in the mean time, people died… _

_When my love woke from his sleep, time had passed by. Never had a dragon been born who knew time. I have felt time slip away, my body slowly grew older, slower than any man or elf or even a Sartan or a Patryn. But I have felt time slip away. How do people deal with that? I don't know… _

_I forgot my love, until I encountered a dragon for the first time in my human life… I remembered. And I fought back. Together, we fled for the humans and went to Kurinandistai… there I released the dragon named Matriarch. I never saw her again. But for those few hours, I felt free. I felt dragon. _

_My love was too furious. Too angry and too desperate… He gazes at me, as I lay dying at his feet. His magic cannot save me… He won't be able to. Slowly I see the frightened people approach. Children of the people who captured my love and spell bounded me. I can't hate them… _

_My love charges in a last effort to defend my life. He is so brave… so daring brave, my darling Sunray… A last bit of curiosity tries to fight for my life… _

_Where would everyone go when they die? _

o.0.o

Fin…


End file.
